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Capping power consumption by a computer system can serve a variety of purposes including conservation, budgetary constraints, heat buildup, interruption due to tripping a circuit breaker, and stress on a power-delivery infrastructure. Power consumption can be limited, for example, by disabling or throttling components (e.g., reducing processor clock rates). Accordingly, some computer systems provide a controller that allows a power consumption cap to be set to limit power consumption by the system.
However, there are circumstances in which a computer might exceed its power-consumption cap. For example, a cap below the minimum power consumption under which a computer system can operate will not be met. Accordingly, some controllers provide for adjusting a minimum settable power consumption so that such overages do not occur.